ANONYMOUS: Behind the mask, inside the Hivemind

Where and who are the Anons? Everywhere and everyone

Not always the bad guy

Despite the outwardly gruff exterior, Anonymous does have a soft spot. Anonymous worked hard to expose the real-life identity of a woman who was drowning puppies, and $deity protect you if you hurt a cat.

Anonymous ploughs enormous resources into whistleblowing. It also routinely battles censorship wherever it is found, with individual Anons putting hundreds of man hours and thousands of dollars into anti-censorship projects. And it has a plan.

Anon3 )) Helping the people in the middle east is an example of "good things" anon does.

Anon3 )) I think it's a good thing. It's always a good thing to have people doing stuff that's for others, which I think has always been Anon's goal.

Anon3 )) Some people just can't handle a laugh at another's expense. Even if it comes in the form of trolling a dead person Facebook.

Anon3 )) Anonymous is not as evil of a monster as some might think. Most people are there for laughs.

One group of Anons I have had the opportunity to spend time with deserves special commendation for their efforts. Friends since grade school, this group of Anons numbers 12 in total. They are professionals: a medical doctor, a lawyer, laboratory technicians of various sorts and a selection of IT nerds. All of them are over 30, with one individual nearly 50.

Collectively they have pooled their time and resources to do good deeds in the name of freedom of information. They have set up and maintained an IRC network with servers in many countries. They buy time on servers around the world and set them up as TOR exit nodes. These Anons have set up informational and proxy websites to help individuals bypass – among others – the Great Firewall of China.

Some among this group contribute financially to Reporters Without Borders. Others have put years of their time into providing technical means to defeat censorship in the all over the world. They also support more esoteric efforts.

Anon4 )) We had a friend who had just gotten laid off by HP and was at loose ends.

Anon4 )) This was right after the housing crash and there were no jobs.